Finance and Economics are certainly among the
sectors most targeted by investors in relation to the Blockchain. In fact,
since there are no intermediaries to manage transactions, the Blockchain would
reduce the costs of bank fees, allowing savings, speed and reliability of
transactions. It is therefore essential to invest in this new technology for
banks and financial institutions, which are trying to get a big enough slice of
this new market, which immediately reveals innumerable possibilities and opportunities.
On blockchain4innovation.it is available the section dedicated to the
Blockchain in Banks and Finance, which offers a broader view and a focus on the
topic of banks and finance in general and how this market is evolving with an
eye to the new Blockchain technology.

2.
Blockchain in Insurance Companies

Moreover, as shown by a study conducted by
Ernst Young, there is an excellent possibility of use also for the Blockchain
in the insurance sector (Insurance). Some ways through which the Blockchain can
help insurances are: Access to secure and decentralized transactions, which
provides a solid basis for preventing fraud, to ensure greater governance, for
better data and reporting. Furthermore, thanks to Blockchain, insurances can
have up-to-date and accurate notifications regarding changes, which allows them
to improve risk management and maximize capital and funding opportunities, as
well as the possibility of adopting Big Data strategies, which are very useful
to obtain secure information about their customers, their priorities and
preferences, as well as any additional information taken by third parties. From
a technical point of view, insurers see in Blockchain an opportunity to
integrate a third-party ecosystem to reduce the costs of their management platforms,
while improving the user experience and the market share, and developing new
solutions and opportunities. At the market level, insurers also have
opportunities in the governance of their companies, through improved data
access, third-party controls and more sophisticated risk management systems,
associated with their products and services, such as cyber insurance .

3.
Blockchain
in digital payments

Also with regard to digital payments there
are great opportunities for the Blockchain. Obviously there are still many
problems that need to be addressed, such as the processing time of a
transaction, which is still very slow considering the needs of a market and a
world that are always going faster. The performance of the system should also
be improved, in order to be better absorbed by digital payments, and in the
same way clear regulatory indications and a more careful analysis of threats
and opportunities are the challenges of Blockchain in the digital payments
sector. Despite these challenges, however, there are plenty of opportunities
for this new technology applied to digital payments, and probably very soon we
will have the first feedback from the market.

4.
Blockchain
in Agrifood

In the Agrifood the Blockchain finds a
further excellent “ally”. Some of the application features of
Blockchain in Agrifood are the traceability, transparency, of those who want to
“tell the story” of their food, using the Blockchain to ensure
reliability. Other companies already want to track containers and transport of
food and food in general using the Blockchain. In conclusion, the benefits of
Blockchain in Agrifood are manifold, and from decentralization, to shared
control, to the immutability and preservation of information, there are
certainly many applications for Blockchain in Agrifood.

5.
Blockchain in the Industry 4.0

Even in manufacturing
the Blockchain can be a valuable ally. In fact, thanks to Blockchain in
Industry 4.0, it is possible to exploit the decentralized logic of Blockchain
to produce technologies able to better support production, logistics and supply
chain, as well as other “core” areas of the company. Moreover, thanks
to the Blockchain, it is possible to preserve data and data security, thus
guaranteeing security and reliability throughout the entire production and
distribution process. The Blockchain allows to have solutions in particular for
the industries of transformation, for the management of internal and external
product logistics and for the management of supply chain relationships. In
particular, solutions have been developed that allow to bring the logic of the
“Trust” that is widely used in the field of digital payments also in
the context of transactions that have as object “packages” of data
that represent the identity of certain products and their production logic. In
these cases it is necessary to have maximum reliability in terms of identity
and reliability management. In this case the Blockchain can represent an excellent
solution for implementing the Logistics of Industry 4.0 at the district and
supply chain level.

6.
Blockchain in the IoT

Blockchain is also
very useful in the Internet of Things: thanks to its ease of data exchange,
Blockchain technology could be used to facilitate communication between
connected IoT objects, as well as making data exchange safer and faster.

7.
Blockchain in Healthcare

With regard to
Blockchain and Healthcare, managing patients’ medical data through a shared
system would allow doctors to share patient information safely and quickly, and
would therefore greatly help medicine and health improve patient service, with
the possibility of having the patient’s entire medical record under control,
and thus knowing the patient’s history in advance, in order to give better and
faster treatment.

8.
Blockchain in the Public Administration

Blockchain in the Public Administration also
finds areas of application. For example, the Blockchain could help the Public
Administration and citizens to have a true digital identity, shared and
implemented in this system, with several advantages including: make tax evasion
more difficult, have greater control of citizens and thus fight the
criminality, simplified services in all sectors of the Public Administration
(simplified data transmission), and much more.

9.
Blockchain in the Retail

The Blockchain seems to be an interesting model
to be used in stores and in Retail: with the Blockchain the current in-store
payment methods could be extended to Bitcoin, thus allowing customers to pay much
faster, as well as cheaper. By guaranteeing faster and cheaper, and therefore
cheaper, payments, a better service can be offered to the customer, which could
then give a competitive advantage to the stores that will decide first to
enable these new technologies in their stores.